November 28th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
Silicon.com reports on the latest major market shift coming from France: 1,154 French parliamentary workstations will be moved to OpenOffice, Firefox and a Linux OS.
“After the gendarmes and the Ministry of Culture, it’s the French MPs’ turn to switch to open source. From June 2007, PCs in French députés’ offices will be equipped with a Linux operating system and open source productivity software.”
Whereas Birmingham, England is moving backward, French migrations started by adopting OpenOffice and Firefox, and now are taking steps further forward: “This will be the first case of a French public institution switching its PCs onto a Linux operating system. Previous open source initiatives concerned servers, as was the case with the Ministry of Agriculture, or OpenOffice and Firefox, which were brought into use by France’s gendarmerie.”
The great momentum behind France’s governmental adoption of open source is astounding. It just keeps steamrolling forward, without the petty difficulties that seem to have emerged in Birmingham. The two cases couldn’t be more different!
What’s most important is the size of the French rollout, and the central position France plays in Europe, which means that numerous other countries (and the EU itself) are probably going to follow France’s lead next.
Posted in GNU/Linux, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on French MPs Dump Windows for Linux
November 22nd, 2006 Benjamin Horst
ZDNet UK writes Criticism mounts over Birmingham’s Linux project.
The top brass pulled out and the project seems to have failed. Onlookers can’t figure out how so much money was wasted, when similar Linux migrations in Europe and elsewhere have shown vastly better results.
“The council planned to roll out Linux software and applications on 1,500 desktops in libraries across the city, but in the end it got no further than a 200-desktop project. Several industry watchers have voiced their concerns about the project, particularly around the number of PCs rolled out. Birmingham’s expenditure averaged over £2,500 per PC.”
Wow! This sounds like a classic case of pork barrel spending. I wonder where the money really went?
“Mark Taylor, whose Open Source Consortium also exited the project in the early stages, said: “I have no idea how anyone could spend half a million pounds on 200 desktops, running free software”.
Asked by ZDNet UK whether he was surprised that an XP upgrade was calculated as cheaper than the Linux project, Taylor said, “If it’s done properly, that can’t happen. It’s amazing that anyone can spend that much on [Linux] project management.” Taylor added that there are plenty of open-source skills in the Birmingham area which could have been utilised.”
While Birmingham may have chickened out from the full Linux migration, the move to OpenOffice is continuing, according to some responses to the original article. This is a good way to distract those who are trying to derail the effort. They’ll think they have succeeded in blocking a Linux migration, but meanwhile, all the office suites will have been replaced with OpenOffice, and that is no small accomplishment!
And the next time a Linux move is attempted, it will be much easier to complete, with some of the groundwork already taken care of.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Birmingham’s Linux Project
November 21st, 2006 Benjamin Horst
As the One Laptop per Child project continues to progress, they’ve recently uploaded a photo gallery of the first unit to leave the factory.
And ODF, the OpenDocument Format, plays an important role in the OLPC computers:
“An OpenDocument Viewer is important – it will allow kids to read electronic documents (such as educational books) in the OpenDocument format (ODF). This format is usable in AbiWord which is being adapted to work on the OLPC.
Obviously, since the whole point of the project is education, giving kids the tools they need to read electronic books in various formats is critical. The OpenDocument format (ODF) has properties that are especially valuable for OLPC electronic books, compared to HTML, PDF, or other formats.”
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, ODF, Open Source | Comments Off on One Laptop per Child Photos, ODF Support
November 20th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
The Ubuntu Developer Summit in Mountainview, California, concluded recently. Ubuntu developers the world over converged to discuss their projects, collaborate and plan for future growth.
Linux.com provides a summary report of the event. Video interviews with Mark Shuttleworth, Jono Bacon, and others are included in the article, along with discussions of Jokosher, Gnome and KDE in Ubuntu, and Telepathy, a framework providing unified access to IRC, instant messaging, VoIP, and video chat.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on Ubuntu Developer Summit Report
November 18th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
The city of Northglenn, Colorado, migrated its municipal computer systems to OpenOffice.org, Linux thin terminals, and other open source applications. In some instances, budget line items of $350,000 were reduced to $100,000, allowing savings to be used in migrating to state-of-the-art systems for the city.
Anthony Fortenberry explains that it’s about more than saving money. Modernization and service improvement are other significant reasons to choose open source: “By using extensible, low-cost open source software, local governments can move toward e-government and other advanced services much more quickly than under current conditions.”
The interview contains many details about the benefits Northglenn received from its investment in open source infrastructure. There’s a lot for others to learn from this example.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | 4 Comments »
November 9th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
PC Advisor (UK) announces the first delivery of OLPC machines (One Laptop Per Child, aka the $100 Laptop) will be made in Brazil in the next week.
“The first 50 devices will go to researchers in various Brazilian institutions, who will familiarize themselves with the systems in order to develop regional applications, according to the source.”
Another 1,000 will be delivered in January for deployment in schools the next month.
And we’ll see how it ramps up from there. This is an exciting project that could fundamentally improve education in the countries participating.
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on OLPC Deliveries Starting in Brazil
October 24th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
Mark Shuttleworth, internet entrepreneur, astronaut, and Ubuntu SABDFL, has announced his new “audacious goal” is to get Free Software across the chasm and into the hands of normal users.
This is an important goal, and one toward which Shuttleworth has long been striving! Good luck to him, and to the rest of us working toward the same goal.
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on Mark Shuttleworth on Crossing the Chasm
October 19th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
Jan Stafford of SearchOpenSource.com writes “Two ways Microsoft sabotages Linux desktop adoption.”
“Microsoft has mastered desktop lock-in, undermining users’ confidence in any alternatives and creating a slew of minor difficulties that irritate those who do switch.
Two themes dominate the stories I hear about the tribulations of using and adopting non-Microsoft business desktops: the difficulty in finding compatible hardware and the stranglehold Microsoft Word has on users.”
Despite the difficulties imposed by Microsoft, the switch still pays off in the long run: “Despite the difficulties they’ve encountered, both Canfield and Holt will continue using and evangelizing Linux desktops. They firmly believe, as do I, that the business that plans, trains and implements Linux and OpenOffice desktops well can overcome the short-term hassles and get long-term cost and productivity benefits.”
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on “Two ways Microsoft sabotages Linux desktop adoption”
October 17th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
NY Times reports on Libya committing to the One Laptop Per Child project:
“The government of Libya reached an agreement on Tuesday with One Laptop Per Child, a nonprofit United States group developing an inexpensive, educational laptop computer, with the goal of supplying machines to all 1.2 million Libyan schoolchildren by June 2008…
To date, Mr. Negroponte, the brother of the United States intelligence director, John D. Negroponte, has reached tentative purchase agreements with Brazil, Argentina, Nigeria and Thailand, and has struck a manufacturing deal with Quanta Computer Inc., a Taiwanese computer maker.”
The deal with Libya should bring the total quantity up to the threshold required to begin manufacture.
What a fine example of the power of Linux and open source! And with this project, we should see a pivotal change in the global marketshare of Linux as well.
Posted in Free Culture, GNU/Linux, Open Source, OpenOffice.org | Comments Off on Libya Joins One Laptop Per Child Project
October 10th, 2006 Benjamin Horst
Tina Gasperson from Linux.com writes Library system migrates from Linux – to more Linux.
“The six branches of the Howard County Library system in Maryland provide 300 computers to their clients. This week, every computer has been upgraded from a “homegrown” Linux kernel, to Groovix, an Ubuntu Linux derivative.”
Posted in GNU/Linux, Open Source | Comments Off on 300 Linux Systems in Maryland Libraries